Quipping mechanism for printing-machines



L. E. MORRISON.

GRIPPING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING MACHINES.

APPLICATIONFILED 11m. 20. 1920. RENEWED mm. 14, 1921.

Patented Oct. 18, 1921.

2 swears-aunt Ill-Illl I l t v1 L. E. MORRISON GRIPPING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 20, 1920. RENEWED MAR. 14, 1921.

. 2 S11EETS-SHEET 2'.

Patented Oct. 18, 1921.

Ill/ll, IA

INVENTOR UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEWIS E. MORRISON, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T0 HIMSELF AND S. HAINES PLUM, 2ND, OF MADISON, NEW JERSEY.

GRIPPING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING-MACHINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 18, 1921.

Original application filed May 29, 1919, Serial No. 300,702. Divided and this application filed January 20, 1920, Serial No. 352,751.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, Lnwis E. MORRISON, acitizen of the United States, and resident of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gripping Mechanisms for Printing-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in gripping mechanisms for printing presses particularly suitable for use on job printing presses of the Chandler and Price types, though it may be used on other similar types of presses. The object of the invention is to provide certain novel, useful and practical improvements in the means or apparatus employed to grip or seize the printed or unprinted matter on the platen and remove it.

f Another object of the invention is to provide a gripping mechanism peculiarly adapted for use in connection with a printingv mechanism such as is disclosed in my pending application Serial Number 300,7 02, from which this application is a divisional application.

.Wth the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention comprises such features, arrangements and combinationof parts as are hereinafter described and claimed, while reference is hadto the accompanying drawings, in whichl Figure 1 is a general side view of a printing press, showing the application of my invention; 7

r Fig. 2 is a plan view showing parts of the frame and also showing the gripping mechanism main frame swung to one side;

Fig. 3 is a plan View of the gripping mechanism;

I Fig. 4 is a sectional view 44 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on line 5-5 of Fig. 3; I

Fig. -6 is a similar viewtaken on line 6 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 7 is a detail view of the gripper;

Fig. 8 is a sectional view of parts shown in Fig. 3 on line 8-8 thereof; r

- Fig. 9 is adetail view of 1 the latch for connecting the gripper carriage with the gri per operating link; and

v ig. 10 shows thegripper latch connected to the gripper operating link.

The press as illustrated in outline-only is a typical job or platen press. The frame of thereof on line Serial No. 452,228.

the press is designated in general by the numeral 3. 4: is the driving shaft; 5 the platen pivot; 6 the platen and 7 the form member pivoted at 8. 9 indicates the inking mechanism, 10 the connecting rods (there is one on each side of the press) and 12 is the platen locking cam which also serves as a crank disk for 10. All of the aforesaid parts and their operation are well known in the art and need no further description.

On the left side of the press and suitably secured to the frame 3 is a bracket 15 having an upright portion 16. On the right side of the press there is another bracket 18 also having an upright portion 16 besides another upright support 19. On the latter there is pivoted at 21 a bracket 22 which forms a supportingplatform or foot for the feed table 24, which is in the form of an open framework pivoted at 25 to the bracket 22. The feed table rests normally on the brackets 16 which are provided with supporting shoulders 26, 26. It follows that the feed table maybe raised (swung vertically) on the pivot 21 by operating a handle lever 28 and moved laterally (swung horizontally) on the pivot 25, see Fig. 2, so as to permit the hand feed board 36 to be placed in a socket 37 if it is desired to hand feed'the press. Suitable means, not disclosed herein, are to lock the feed table in its swung out position.

On top of the feed table rests the paper board 40 which supports the paper 52. The paper is automatically fed to the platen by a suitable mechanism not shown, but fully described in my application referred to. It will further be understood that after the paper has been placed upon the platen, the latter moves down and the paper is printed in the usual manner. After being printed, the platen moves upward and the gripping mechanism then acts toremove the sheet from the platen.

The gripper mechanism is constructed as follows:

\ Secured to the feed tables are two rods, preferably square in cross section, and numbered 110 and 111. The gripper carriage 112 slides on said rods, which thus serve to support the gripper mechanism. The gripper carriage slides on the rod 110 by means of a suitable jaw or forked bearing 113, see Fig. 3, and slides on the rod 111 by means of guide rolls 114, 11 1, supported on the gripper carriage by suitable means or plates .ing means.

115. Underneath the latter, Fig. 10, there is pivoted at 116 a latch 117 which projects beyond the end of the gripper carriage as shown, Fig. 9. The latch 117 is urged downward by a small coiled spring 118 inserted between the latch and underneath the lower plate 115. The latch is adapted to snap into engagement with a sliding bearing 119 which moves on a rod 120. The sliding bearing has a cut out portion 121, see Fig.

5, into which the latch drops, and sloping approaches or cam portions 122, 122. The bearing 119 is further provided with a stud 123 to which is pivoted the gripper carriage operating link 124, the other end'of which is pivoted at 125, to the frame 126 of the inking mechanism 9, see Fig. 1.

From this it will be seen that no matter in what position the gripper carriage may be wit-h respect to the bearing 119, when the latter commences to'move on the rod 120, as when the press is running, the bearing will move under the latch and the latch will drop into the bearing. In moving under the latch the sloping approaches 122 will first lift the latch up, so thatthe bearing can pass under the same. Thereafter the gripper carriage will be reciprocated corresponding to the operation of the press by the link 124.

This feature of detachably connecting the gripper carriage from the operating link 124 is necessary when'it is remembered that at times the feed table, hence the gripper carriage, is lifted and the press perhaps operated byhand feeding or for repairs or other reason. During such operation the link 124 will reciprocate the bearing119 and when it stops it may or may not be in the exact position underneath the gripper carriage (which latter will have been. moved forward or to the left in Fig. 4). The reengagement of the bearing 119 and the grip per carriages is, however, automatically completed by the bearing moving under the latch as described.

The gripper carriage is drawn forward when the feed table is raised by the follow- On a rod Figs. 3. 4. and S. secured to the feed table. slides a spring 126 which bears against, the underside of the feed'table frame 24. There is sutlicient tension in said spring to maintain. it in any position to which it may be moved. The spring has a nose 127 which projects in the path of the gripper carriage 119 or the plate 115 thereof. 128 is a tape connected to said spring which passes over a roller 129 and is attached to the curved lever 28.

When the said lever is swung down in the direction of arrow 200 to raise the feed table, the latch 117 is of course at once disengaged from the slidable bearing 119 and as the lever moves down, the spring 126 is pulled to the left by the tape 128 and carries the gripper carriage with it. j When the table is again lowered, the bearing 119 will engage the latch and carry the gripper carriage rearward, to the right. in regular operation, whereby the spring 126 will again be moved to its normal position.

Returning now to the ripper mechanism, the gripper itself is numbered 130 and comprises a relatively fixed lower jaw 131 and a movable upper jaw 132 connected by a toggle joint 133. The lower 1' aw is carried l a clamp 134 secured to the carriage 112. The upper jaw is opened and closed upon the lower jaw by means of a gripper operat ing link 1135 connected to the toggle joint 133 and adjustably pivoted at 136 to an arm 137 in turn adjustably carried on a gripper shaft 138 by a set screw 139. From this it is clear that the gripper may be adjusted sidewise by sliding the clamp 134 on the carriage112 and by sliding the arm 1 on the shaft 138. The shaftis supported in bearing 140 and a spring 141 tends to turn the shaft in a clockwise direction to close the gripper. On the gripper shaft is fixed an arm 142 bearing a roller 143. 144 is a gripper latch and opening means and consists of a narrow strip of metal pivoted at 145 and having a gripper opening finger 146 and a latch piece or portion 147. 148 is a Spring which tends to force the opening finger 146 upward. is secured a closing roller 149 and on a rod 151) is adj us tably mounted a gripper opening cam 151 by means of a setscrew )uring the operation of the press, the grip per carriage is moved forward to the left in Fig. 3, when the press closes and vice versa. eit the end of the rearward movement to the right in Fig. 3) the opening finger 146 abuts the opening roller 149 and is'depressed, the tail piece or latch 147 is moved upward and the shaft 138 is turned quickly by the s iring 141 in a clockwise direction. Hence the arm 137 is likewise moved to straighten out the toggle joint and the upper gripper iaw closes with asnap upon the lower jaw which has moved in under the paper on the platen. p a

The gripper is thereafter moved forward and carries the printed sheet in under the feed table. At the proper time, depending upon the size of paper printed, the roller 143 moves under the opening cam 151 and the arin142 .is depressed. consequently the gripper shaft 138 is moved in an anti-clockwise direetion and the gripper is opened and the sheet dropped. As the arm 142 is depressed, the catch 153 thereon snaps above the latch 146 and is held by the'latter until the gripper is closed. When the gripper is closed, the latch 147 snaps above the catch 153 and thusserves to maintain the gripper in respectively open and closed positions. The printed sheet is delivered or dropped from the gripper onto the receiving board 0n the feed table frame 160 and is jogged or stacked in a neat pile by any suitable means not shown.

While the gripping mechanism herein has been described and illustrated with special: reference to a press as described in the pending application referred to above, it will nevertheless, be understood that the gripping mechanism is not dependent in its operation upon such feature, but may be used on stationary feed tables and other types ofprinting mechanisms. It will further be understood that I do not intend to limit myself strictly to the detailed disclosures herein but that changes may be made within the principle of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

I claim.

1. A gripping mechanism comprising supporting means, a gripper carriage slidably supported thereon, a gripper on said carriage, means for opening and closing said gripper, a gripper carriage operating link and means for automatically detaching and attaching said operating link to the said carriage.

2. A gripping mechanism comprising supporting means, a gripper carriage, guiding means therefor, a gripper adjustably mounted on said carriage, a latch mechanism on the latter and gripper operating means adapted to automatically engage and disengage with the said latch mechanism.

3. The combination with a platen, of gripping means normally supported in operative relationship with said platen, a gripper, means for operating the latter toward and away from said platen and mechanism for moving said gripping means into nonoperative relationship with said platen and for moving said gripper away from the platen.

4:. The combination with a platen, of gripping means normally supported in operative relationship with said platen, a gripper, operating means for the same and mechanism for simultaneously moving said gripping means out of operative relationship with said platen, automatically disengaging the said gripper from its said operating means and moving said gripper in a direction away from the said platen.

5. The combination with a platen, of gripping means normally supported in operative relationship therewith and including a gripper carriage, a gripper thereon, operating means for the said gripper carriage and mechanism for moving said gri ping means out of operative relationship with said platen, automatically disengaging said gripper carriage from its operating means and moving said gripper and carriage in a direction away from the said platen.

6. The combination with a platen, of a gripping mechanism normally supported in operative relationship therewith and including a gripper carriage, a device for operating said gripper carriage, means for moving said gripping mechanism into non-operative relationship with said platen, moving said gripper carriage in a direction away from the platen and disengaging said carriage from the said operating device, and means for automatically connecting said operating device and said gripper carriage irrespective of the position of the latter when the said gripping mechanism is again brought into operative relationship with the said platen.

7. A gripping mechanism comprising supporting means, a gripper carriage slidably mounted thereon, a link connected to said gripper carriage for operating the same, means for disconnecting said gripper carriage and link, a member for moving the gripper carriage in a given direction and means for actuating said member by the said disconnecting means.

8. The combination with supporting means, of a gripping mechanism, means for raising and lowering the latter with respect to said supporting means, a gripper carriage, a link for operating the same, and devices for automatically disengaging said link and gripper carriage when said gripping mechanism is raised and for automatically rengaging the same when said mechanism is lowered.

9. The combination .with supporting means, of a gripping mechanism adapted to be raised and lowered with respect to said supporting means, a grlpper carriage, a member in engagement therewith for reciprocating the same, means for automatically disengaging said member and gripper carriage when the said mechanism is raised, a device for operating said carriage a given distance in a given direction, after said disengagement, said automatic disengaging means also serving as means for reengaging said operating member and gripper carriage when the gripping mechanism is lowered and irrespective of the position of said gripper carriage.

LEWIS E. MORRISON. 

